Chapter 60: The Battlefield

Bane raised his eyes to look ahead.

The calm expression on his face was instantly dyed with anger, his voice hoarse and cold.

“Eben! You said last time that the enslavement runes you carved into those resources would work, but they were completely useless! Are you playing me?”

Under Eben’s strips of cloth, a pair of ancient eyes quietly watched him.

His tone was as steady as ever.

“Bane, can you explain the situation in more detail?”

Bane suppressed the rage in his heart and said coldly.

“Rivina — you should have heard of this monster.”

Bane explained calmly.

“I had you secretly carve enslavement marks into the magic crystals and souls delivered to her, precisely so a seed could be planted in her body and she could become a blade in my hand.”

As he spoke, his emotions grew increasingly agitated, and he glared at Eben while angrily questioning him.

“But now? Not only is she not under control, she’s getting stronger the more she kills!”

After listening, Eben did not immediately refute him.

He fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking.

“Bane… does Rivina already have some kind of control-type mark on her?”

Bane was stunned, then nodded.

“That’s true. The human empire once placed a powerful restriction on her in order to seal her.”

“Then that explains it,” Eben said calmly and with certainty.

“That restriction is not an ordinary seal. From what I know, it is a divine-grade brand left behind by the Church of the God of Light. It is precisely because it suppresses her consciousness that she has not completely gone mad.”

He paused, his tone turning heavy.

“And the enslavement runes you asked me to carve are far below divine level. When two marks coexist, the lower-grade one will automatically be repelled and overwritten by the higher-grade one. So it’s not that my runes were ineffective — they simply could not invade her spiritual domain at all.”

“And furthermore,” Eben added, “Rivina herself possesses a chaos attribute. Her soul is extremely unstable, and conventional methods cannot tame her. If you truly want to control her, you must use a divine-grade item of the same level as a medium. Otherwise, everything is futile.”

After hearing this, Bane was first shocked, then threw his head back and let out a low laugh.

“A divine-grade item? Heh…”

He slowly stood up and drew a greatsword from behind him.

The blade was assembled from pitch-black spinal bones.

At the end of the hilt was a ferocious skull, its mouth biting the crossguard as if chewing on an enemy’s soul.

The entire sword was wrapped in dense deathly aura, so oppressive that even the air seemed to stagnate.

“I wonder if my Blade of the Undead can do it,” Bane asked with a smile, blue flames blazing in his eyes.

“This is a divine weapon passed down through generations of our skeleton clan. Legend says it was once wielded by the God of Death himself.”

Eben stared at the Blade of the Undead for a long time before finally speaking slowly.

“I don’t know. But… it can be tried.”

He paused, and his tone suddenly became serious.

“Bane, you should be careful recently. Be wary of the Demon King.”

“Be wary of her?” Bane scoffed dismissively.

“Why? My plan is progressing extremely smoothly.”

As he spoke, he could not help but laugh.

“All frontline commanders are already under my control, and the logistics are handled by my trusted subordinates. No matter how strong she is, can she really fight the entire demon race by herself?”

Eben did not answer.

He merely looked quietly at Bane.

Behind the strips of cloth, those eyes seemed to hide an indescribable worry.

“Perhaps,” he finally said only three words.

Then, the projection slowly dissipated like smoke.

Bane looked at the empty seat and sneered as he shook his head.

“Hehehe… Eben, you’ve grown timid.”

At the same time, on the western battlefield.

Corpses lay everywhere, and the earth had long been soaked in blood, turning into a pitch-black mire.

Rivina stood atop a mountain of corpses, her entire body drenched in blood.

Her red hair clung to her face, like a female demon crawling out of hell.

She spread her arms wide, laughing wildly as she absorbed the remaining souls and life force from the battlefield.

“Hahahaha! Too weak! All of you are too weak!”

She licked the blood from her fingertips, her aura climbing higher and higher.

“Come on! Send more people! Make me even stronger!”

Just as she laughed wantonly, the ground suddenly shook violently.

Countless white bones burst out of the earth, rapidly assembling into gigantic skeleton warriors.

They wielded bone spears, blue ghostly flames burning in their eye sockets, surging toward her like a tide in an attempt to trap her completely.

Rivina sneered with disdain.

“Hiding and sneaking around — what kind of hero is that?”

The demonic power around her suddenly erupted.

A violent ring-shaped shockwave exploded outward, shattering and flinging away all the approaching skeletons!

“Come out already!” she roared at the void.

“Let grandpa eat you!”

Before her words had even faded, thick black fog spread across the battlefield.

Within the fog, Bane’s figure slowly emerged.

He held the Blade of the Undead in his hand, his skeletal frame standing tall like a mountain, his voice low and commanding.

“Rivina, vanguard general of the humans, and the devil of our demon race.”

“Devil?”

Hearing this word, Rivina bared her teeth in a grin, revealing rows of ghastly white fangs, contempt filling her eyes.

“Are you talking about me? But you lot… aren’t you afraid of devils too?”

Before her words finished, Bane had already moved.

His figure flashed, appearing before her like a ghost.

The Blade of the Undead was raised high, wrapped in overwhelming deathly aura, and slashed straight down at her head!

“Clang—!”

Rivina did not dodge or evade.

She directly blocked the blow with her arm!

The blade struck her skin with the sound of metal colliding with stone.

However, the wound did not heal instantly as it usually did.

Instead, black deathly aura burrowed into the wound, continuously eroding her flesh and greatly slowing her recovery!

“Hm?!”

Her pupils shrank as she noticed something was wrong.

“So that’s how it is…”

She grinned viciously.

“No wonder you dared to come see me alone. You think this broken sword of yours can really hurt me?”

In the next instant, she launched a ferocious counterattack!

Her fists rained down like a storm, each blow carrying tremendous force, driving Bane back again and again.

“Bang!”

“Boom!”

“Crack—!”

The Blade of the Undead blocked the final punch, but the bones in Bane’s entire arm shattered inch by inch.

His body was sent flying like a cannonball, smashing through several rock walls before finally coming to a stop.

He struggled to his feet, alarm bells ringing wildly in his mind.

This woman’s strength had already exceeded expectations!

He could not continue fighting!

He slammed a palm onto the ground and softly chanted an incantation.

In an instant, dozens of giant skeleton colossi over ten meters tall burst out from deep within the battlefield.

They roared as they charged toward Rivina, buying him time to retreat.

Seeing this, Rivina showed no fear.

Instead, she excitedly licked her lips.

“Calling for backup? Perfect! I’m hungry anyway!”

Bane did not linger.

He knew that the true enemy was not this madwoman, but the Demon King sitting high upon the throne.

Taking advantage of the giant skeletons drawing her attention, his figure flashed.

He swiftly withdrew from the battlefield, disappearing into the distant smoke of war.

The wind and sand gradually settled, and the battlefield returned to deathly silence.

Rivina stood atop the ruins, gazing in the direction he had left.

She tightened her grip on the head in her hand.

“Bane…” she murmured softly.

A gleam of excitement flashed in her eyes.

“It seems everything is getting interesting now.”